Johns Hopkins professor Benjamin Ginsberg has buttressed his acerbic attacks on higher education’s “bureaucracy gone wild’’ with a new book. But a report out Wednesday from a research group offers a more positive take. It concludes that compared to previous downturns, colleges have better resisted the temptation to balance the books with easy cuts to teaching, and are trying to make structural reforms.
“These guys know that doing the usual round of across the board cuts and waiting for the money to come back wasn’t going to work this time,’’ said Jane Wellman, executive director of Delta Cost Project, which studies university spending patterns and has sharply criticized “administrative bloat’’ on campus in the past.
To be sure, college teaching has taken an unprecedented hit during the Great Recession. Universities have cut tens of thousands of mostly part-time teaching positions. That means fewer and more crowded classes, and much more work for the teachers who remain.
The University of North Carolina system has eliminated more than 3,000 positions — mostly adjunct professors — to bridge a $414 million state budget cut this year. The beleaguered California State system — which has lost roughly $1 billion in funding — has turned away 50,000 otherwise admissible students in recent years for lack of resources to teach them.
But at the same time, major system reorganizations are under way in several states. Last week, the University of Wisconsin detailed plans to cut 51 jobs at its system HQ, giving more autonomy to branch campuses and shielding them somewhat from even harsher cuts. Missouri’s university system has cut central-office jobs, while universities in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois are all at least starting to collaborate on bulk purchasing.
At Cal State schools, more than two staff and administration jobs have been eliminated for every full-time faculty spot reduction over the last two years.
Linda Katehi, chancellor of the budget-battered University of California-Davis, scanned a campus auditorium full of nervous employees last week, delivering a blunt message along with an update on plans for a massive re-organization that will at last bring the university’s IT, financial and back-office operations under one roof.
